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Indian Satellite On Course To Final Orbit After Rocket Launch
Bangalore (AFP) India, March 13, 2007 An Indian satellite designed to boost television and communication services was on course Tuesday to reach its final orbit after its delayed launch by rocket, the national space agency said. "Everything is going well," S. Krishnamurthy, spokesman for the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation, told AFP. "We are monitoring the satellite and will plan the next manoeuvre for the following days." On Tuesday, the INSAT-4B satellite was nudged into its "intermediate orbit" at a height of between 14,000 and 15,000 kilometres (8,680 miles and 9,300 miles) above the equator, Krishnamurthy said. It was the first "critical" orbit-raising manoeuvre carried out by Indian scientists on the satellite, he said. All systems on board were functioning normally, he said. The Indian-built satellite will be eventually placed in final orbit at a height of 36,000 kilometres above the equator by scientists at the Master Control Facility in the southern Indian city of Hasan who are tracking the satellite. The 3,025-kilogram (6,655-pound) INSAT-4B was launched by Arianespace's Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana on Monday after a day's delay caused by a technical glitch. The satellite is equipped with 24 transponders designed to beam television programmes directly to households using mini-dish antennas in the country of 1.1 billion people. Direct-to-home television service providers such as Tata Sky and Dish TV are expanding, promising news and entertainment programmes with better picture and sound quality to lure customers away from cable TV operators. All transponders on the satellite were fully booked before launch, the Press Trust of India reported earlier this month, enabling the Indian space agency to earn 12.5 billion rupees (282.25 million dollars) in revenue and more than cover the 2.25 billion rupees it paid Arianespace for the launch. The satellite, which has a life of 12 years, cost 2.1 billion rupees to develop and has been insured for 600 million rupees. Launched in 1983, INSAT is the largest domestic communication satellite system in the Asia-Pacific region, with nine satellites in operation equipped with 175 communication transponders. The satellites provide services in telecommunication, television broadcasting and meteorology including disaster warning.
ISRO Status Report With this LAM operation, INSAT-4B perigee has been raised to 14,244 km. The apogee is at 35,752 km and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced from 4.5 deg at the time of entering into orbit to 1.15 deg now. The present orbital period is 15 hours 21 minutes. It may be recalled that INSAT-4B was successfully launched by Ariane 5 launch vehicle yesterday (March 12, 2007) from Kourou, French Guyana. The launch vehicle placed INSAT-4B in the intended Gesynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with a perigee (closest point to the earth) of 250 km and apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,886 km. MCF acquired the first signals at 4:02 am IST on March 12, 2007 and conducted initial phase operations on INSAT-4B. The satellite which had gone out of radio visibility of MCF at 2:04 pm yesterday, came within its radio visibility again at 1:00 am this morning. The satellite was oriented suitably before the start of LAM operations. All systems on board the satellite are functioning normally. The satellite went out of MCF radio visibility at 12:02 pm this afternoon. It will again come within MCF's radio visibility at 6:11 am tomorrow. Further orbit raising maneuvers are planned in the next few days. http://www.isro.org
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links The latest information about the Commercial Satellite Industry The latest information about the Commercial Satellite Industry
EU Regulators Expected To Clear Alactel-Thales Satellite Deal
Brussels (AFP) March 13, 2007EU regulators will clear French defence electronics group Thales' plans to buy the satellite interests of French-US telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, sources said Tuesday. |
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